Everything in the world can be divided into two categories, as far as Logan's concerned. Things that Piss Him Off and Things That Don't. The former category is huge and the latter category is small, and then there's like a subcategory of Pissed Off that gets special attention. That's the Rogue Category.
No, don't say anything, 'kay? No questions. This buzz won't last forever. Anyway, subsection Rogue, right? We're good to go. Fill up my glass. This is damned fine vodka, sweetie. Damned fine.
When it happened, Scott didn't call him--which is probably the reason for what happened that night when Logan came home. But I can't blame Scott--none of us knew how serious it was. Students do stuff like that--they get pissed and run off, the Professor finds where they are, sends Jean or Ororo or Scott to talk to them, and they come back. We haven't lost a student yet--see, you haven't been here long enough to understand that. But we haven't. So you can't really blame them for not taking it seriously at first.
Get over it. She ran a day after she got here--Logan brought her back. It's not like she hasn't run since either. She's disappeared for a day or so when Logan's memories ate at her too much. So why the hell would anyone worry? Shut up and hand me the glass. It's full. Thanks.
And anyway, they really didn't know she was even gone until she didn't come home from classes at the university on Tuesday, which gave her a thirty-two hour lead if she left right Monday morning. Which is the assumption. No, they wouldn't have known and do me a favor and stop looking so skeptical--she takes night classes on Mondays as well as day classes, so no one really sees her Monday nights anyway. She never eats with us on Mondays.
Well, of course Jean checked her room! Don't be so stupid. That's the other reason--there wasn't anything missing. Not anything when you checked--just normal stuff--her books and the clothes she wore, her jacket, a pair of gloves--everything she'd need for a day at school anyway. Jean and Ororo then went into some digging, and they picked up an address--in Mississippi. Her home. On a letter.
From her mom. Yeah, I got your attention--worth a bottle, huh?
No, I don't know what was in the letter--trust me, Kitty tried to phase through a wall to see it and--well, she's still grounded, that tell you anything? Thought so. Well, whatever was in it upset Rogue pretty bad--or so everyone assumes. The Professor has it now--you think I'm gonna try and sneak in there? Thank you, no, I don't think so.
Damn. You made me lose my place.
Anyway, okay, you were in bed when Logan got home--Kitty and I kind of figured he'd be on the fastest flight--and that tells you something, 'cause Logan hates to fly. Something about the Statue of Liberty and him getting airsick or whatever. I don't get the reference, but Jean always seems amused whenever it comes up. But he was called on Friday night and drove straight to Austin, where he took the first flight to Chicago and arrived in New York around ten Saturday evening. I checked the schedules, he did pretty good getting those flights--I guess growling and looking threatening works on airline cashiers pretty well. Who knew, huh?
He got here less than two hours later, and Kitty and I snuck down the steps to listen. Trust me on this, it wasn't hard to figure out when he arrived--I'm pretty sure the front lawn needed some major repairs. Luckily, I wasn't on lawn duty that week. You either. The door--well, you notice the shape the front door's in, right? I rest my case.
Now, remember the categories? Yeah, well the Rogue Category is a class by itself. He was two steps beyond pissed--it didn't look like he slept at all and he walked in and started damned well yelling for someone to get their asses in gear because they got exactly, and no more, exactly two hours before he was gone again to find her.
Scott and Jean were damned surprised--they hadn't been sleeping, were with Xavier, possibly contemplating their thumbnails--okay, I'm not being fair here. Xavier was in Cerebro for a lot longer than Jean liked trying to find her and was really surprised when he couldn't--which he said means she's accessing Eric's memories.
Anyway, they were pretty surprised, and damn it, give me the bottle this time. You pour too slow. Thanks. Okay. They came out--I'm surprised you slept through it, to be honest. Logan didn't even bother to wait for Scott to say anything before he went ahead and lost whatever temper he still had under control.
"How the fuck do you lose one girl? She was supposed to be safe here, with people takin' care of her, and look what the fuck happened--what the hell did you do to her?"
I could barely hear Scott at first. No problem hearing Logan, though. His voice echoed--yeah, it was pretty intense. Too bad you missed it--I don't think we'll see anything like that again.
"Two fucking days before you even figured out she was gone? How the hell do you lose someone for two goddamn days? She's a kid--she had no business--"
Jean cut him off.
"Logan, she's twenty. She can go off the grounds--"
"What, you think that makes it better? You lost her and couldn't even be bothered to fucking tell me when there was still a fucking trail to follow! Instead, you lose her for two weeks and sit around contemplating your asses instead of gettin' out there and--"
He was cut off again--which was sort of disappointing, because you know, Logan isn't a talker and this was the most words anyone has ever heard out of him. Okay, so some of them were pretty repetitive. He hadn't even hit his stride yet--I definitely got the feeling that there were some terrified people on the flights he took. Poor them. Poor Scott. He already felt pretty lousy and Logan wasn't helping any, though I think that maybe it was a release for him. You know, like finally get to crack out of his ultra-anal self and get some tension out.
"Logan, shut up." Scott doesn't use profanity. Something about it being a perversion of the fine English language--shit, ask him. He has a lecture series that you get to hear if you're stupid enough to swear around him. Rogue heard it---well, alot. She could recite it chapter and verse. Try it. Soo much fun.
Getting back to it--and will you please stop taking the bottle? You wanna hear the story, you can damn well pay up.
"You haven't been here in a year--how the hell were we supposed to know you even gave damn what happens to her?"
That, my friend, is called waving a big, Empire State Building-size red flag in front of an already pissed bull. I ducked and Kitty ducked and then we snuck down a little farther to get the view.
We're not suicidal or anything--we kept down. But there wasn't anything that'd make us miss this show.
We did miss whatever happened--shit, and that sucks--but Jean was standing between them and Logan was looking like he'd plow right through her to do a little Scott-rearrangement.
"Logan, stop. Scott, that was uncalled for. Both of you. This isn't going to do Rogue any good." Jean has more courage than I'll ever have. "Xavier will explain what happened, Logan. Calm down--we don't need this on top of everything else."
She looked pretty tense--she doesn't have the level of telepathy the Professor has, but she does have enough to pick up tension and I'll bet she had a hell of a headache with both Logan and Scott acting like that.
"Everything else?" Logan was cooling down, but I don't think Jean had much to do with it. "Jeannie. What else?"
Jeannie, and that was--well, you can imagine Scott's reaction. No one calls her that except Logan. He went all stiff, about to do something--and Jean turned on him and looked straight into his visor--you'd never think she could look so hard, but she can, and Scott sort of swallowed whatever he was going to say there.
Scott stands real still--he just stands there, then finally sort of sighs.
"The Professor can explain better than I can. There's been some heavy anti-mutant activity--and somehow, they got information about Rogue. About her particular mutation." A pause. "It was--difficult. We had a lot of questions."
"Questions?"
"From sponsors."
"How the hell did they find out about her? I thought you kept this place low-profile. And that the student records don't get out. Especially hers."
Me and Kitty held our breath--you see, that was enough to make us all nervous. Hell, you wanna have you identity banded about like that? Didn't think so. There's a reason we get those cute new names when we join up and why we use them so much even around each other--gotta keep the pretense this is just a school, not a training facility for saving the world. Yeah, the sponsors sort of know better--but they don't know everything.
Not nearly everything about us.
So yeah, that was a problem.
"Someone broke the database. They didn't get much--just some medical records." Jean now. "The cross-indexing is encrypted and its not accessible to anyone but me, Scott, and Xavier. But the basic records--" She trailed off, kind of looking defeated--she took it pretty personally.
Logan didn't even breathe, I think.
"They didn't have her name?"
"We don't think so--but we found a letter in Rogue's room--"
"I want to see her room. Now."
A pause--and me and Kitty made tracks up and out. Logan's hearing is too damned good to take a risk, so Kitty phased through the wall--gotta thank her for that, by the way--leaving me to keep running alone. I think Logan was too distracted to notice--he barreled up the steps three at a time and Scott and Jean were only a breath behind him. I got in a corner and hoped for the best--and well--Kitty told me what happened in the room, she phased into the wall and sort of got the best seat, so to speak.
Apparently, Logan went through the room like a whirlwind--checked everything, even the scents. Picked up me (who knew he knew my scent?), you, Kitty, even Bobby from when he was studying there a few days before she left, though he said really faded--seemed to like that. Got Jean's and Ororo's--then got another one and he wasn't at all amused.
"I don't recognize two of them."
Kitty says she almost dephased at that point. I don't blame her. Two? We have some new students, but neither knows Rogue that well--certainly not enough to go to her room. One of the two scents he says came about the time Rogue was last in the room--and apparently, when Jean gave him the letter and showed him where they found it--that scent was all over both of them.
So someone--someone Logan doesn't know--was in here with Rogue. And Kitty says that the letter was different--it wasn't mailed or anything, no stamp or postmark, because her mom didn't know where she was, not since Xavier got the guardianship when she came here. But she didn't see what was written or anything--damn it.
Logan read it though.
"It's a lie." He turned on Jean, threw it at her. "It's a lie, Jean. You think her family would--" And he stopped short, shook his head. Then started his room search, Jean trailing behind.
Anyway, luckily, I was back in my room before Logan arrived. Don't smirk--he had a reluctant Jean in tow and was checking out the new students--and he definitely said it wasn't either of them. Scott didn't like waking them up--but Jean, apparently being wise enough to know that it was better to win a small battle than lose a war--escorted him through the school.
So no one here. Those scents aren't one of us
Anyway, Logan talked to the Professor--Kitty didn't get to see that, the Professor's quarters are protected from that sort of thing--and he and Jean left a few hours later. Jean came back early that afternoon and really, I don't know much more. After all--I'm not an X-Man. I don't get to attend the ultra-secret meetings.
Okay, that's it--all I know. Hope it helps. I'm going to bed--I promised Kitty I'd come by and talk to her while she's still restricted to her room. I'll see ya later. And thanks for the bottle--Kitty'll appreciate it.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000